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Socialism, Its Origin and Karl Marx Ideas Details: al Affiliation: Socialism, Its Origin and Karl Marx IdeasSocialism is a contested concept with varied interpretations. The dispute not only involves those opposed to the concept but also the movement’s advocates who are in constant search of clarity. As such, it engenders diverse forms of social ownership [of property] and the extent of states’ constructionist involvement in terms of planning. Nonetheless, a general definition of the term socialism refers to it as a socio-political and economic ideology in which the working class owns and controls property [the means of production] and that the benefits that accrue out of its use [property] belongs to the society [the working class].

1Practically, socialism emerged as a consequence of theoretical, logical reasoning triggered by a moral crisis suspended by intellectual anarchy. A distinct feature before the Enlightenment era in Europe, aristocratic rule buoyed by the concentration of wealth [property] in the hands of the chosen few was inevitable, justifiable and God given. As a moderating mechanism, Christianity endorsed holy poverty as the clergy rented the air with the gospel of obligatory charity to the majority poor; a balance that leaned much on agriculture and whose effects could only get worse as the population expanded.

2 Indeed as the impact of Industrial Revolution gradually changed the contours of European civilization, the old aristocracy was slowly rendered irrelevant as the bourgeoisie [the propertied] took effective economic and political control, drafting much of the peasant class into a chequered, industrial labor recruitments. The new modes of production granted the propertied a natural limitless accumulation of wealth, widening the inequality gap even further. The working class in the newly industrializing Europe suffered more than doubled with a stepped-up exploitation reaching the extremes; the old feudal system that guaranteed places of residence and limited income for peasants became no more; workers could be hired and fired at will; wage rates became driven by the market forces and could plummet as low as competition allowed; and factories operating 24/7 ran under the worst inhuman conditions ever witnessed in history.

Adding to the misery of the proletariat, women and children became the preferred factories workers because of the cheaper pay.3 The result was a general decline in the standards of living and a subsequent attitudinal shift towards capitalism. Powered by the eighteenth century maxims of the French pioneers of thought, socialism was a change, inspiration movement dedicated towards a society characterized by social solidarity instincts and ineluctable growth of the proletariat; advocacy for controlled economic functionalities run for the benefit of all, and the not the propertied as was(is) the case with industrial capitalism.

One of the major theorists of socialism, Karl Marx (1818-1883) brought a cogent vision of a socio-political and economic order summed up in ‘scientific socialism’ as a remedy of the social ills of capitalism. Marx argues that history is but a battlefield of class struggles between the oppressors and the oppressed. He was heavily critical of capitalism, terming it the “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie” that only produces in mass grave diggers [the working class]. Marx believed in a slow but conscious reconditioning of the economic system that would overthrow capitalism and the subsequent establishment of a classless society controlled by the proletariat.

References“Introduction to 19th-Century Socialism.” Washington State University. Last revised March 28, 2005. http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/socialism.html Lamb, Peter and Docherty James. Historical Dictionary of Socialism. Lanham, Maryland, UK: Scarecrow Press, 2006.